The Tigers have hired recently retired right-handers Kyle Hendricks as a special assistant to the baseball operations department, reports Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. Although Hendricks never played for Detroit during his 12-year major league career, he knows both Tigers president of baseball Scott Harris and general manager Jeff Greenberg from the couple’s days in the Cubs front office. Stavenhagen added that Hendricks is expected to focus his efforts on the development of the game.
Hendricks, 36, spent 11 seasons (2014-24) with the Cubs and finished his career with the Angels in 2025. He retired with a career ERA of 3.79, 105 wins and 1373 strikeouts over 1745 innings in the major leagues. All of that success came despite the fact that Hendricks didn’t have the prototypical power arsenal that matches modern pitchers. He has never averaged 91 mph on his four-seamer in a given season, finishing with an average velocity of 87.2 mph on the “fastball” in his career.
Going back generations, Hendricks excelled because of his excellent command, good sense of pitch and the ability to avoid hard contact. “The Professor” and his thoughtful approach to attacking hitters with less-than-premium material could be helpful in developing the young arms in Detroit’s pipeline.
There have been a growing number of former major leaguers rising to senior positions in major league front offices in recent seasons. Former players who run baseball careers for their clubs include Jerry Dipoto (Sailors), Chris Getz (White Sox), Craig Breslow (Red Sox), Buster Posey (Bullies) and Chris Young (Passengers). Brandon Gomes he is not the top decision maker for the Dodgers but holds the title of general manager and sits at No. 2 on their baseball job list behind president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman. So is the Marlins GM Gabe Kaplerwho is the 2nd largest behind Peter Bendix in Miami. Sam Fuld he recently held the position of GM with the Phillies but is in the process of becoming their new president of business operations.
Hendricks’ ultimate ambitions on the high end side of things are still unclear, but there are certainly some similarities between the approach he took and that taken by Young and Breslow in particular. Both Junior (Princeton) and Breslow (Yale) are former Ivy League players who have enjoyed major league careers while working at average speed. Young began his baseball career working in the league’s middle offices, while Breslow jumped right into the Cubs’ baseball ops department with an emphasis on strategic planning and pitching development. Hendricks, a Dartmouth product, could follow a similar path, though given his long career and reputation within the game, he’ll have opportunities on the coaching side if he wants to throw his hat in that ring at some point down the line.
